Archivists

While not wishing in any way to diminish Rick Schmidlin's accomplishment in attempting to reconstruct Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil" ("Orson Welles Gets Final Cut--at Last," Jan. 31), I would like to amend his comment: "I even discovered some lost documents at USC." When Schmidlin called the USC Cinema-Television library to ask what we had on "Touch of Evil," one of our archivists, Ned Comstock, amazed him by simply presenting him with the so-called lost production files and memos. Like many documents contained in the archives at USC and other universities, the Welles materials were not lost but waiting for some scholar to express an interest in them.

For sale: one used lion costume. But we're not talking just any lion costume. Archivist James Comisar owns one of the largest archives of television artifacts, with about 10,000 individual objects. Now he's looking for a new home for the iconic Cowardly Lion costume designed by Gilbert Adrian and worn by Bert Lahr during all the "mane" sequences in the beloved 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz. " This may be the perfect time to pique collectors' interest in the costume because of the opening Friday of Sam Raimi's big-budget "Oz the Great and Powerful," which tells the story of how the wizard came to take up residence in the Emerald City.

A former archivist at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library has been appointed to the same position at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace. Gregory G. Cumming is expected to help the library gain possession of Nixon's White House records, currently at the National Archives. Cumming, 39, has worked at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley since 1989 and will start at the Yorba Linda facility Sept. 16.

A former Walt Disney Co. archivist is suing the Burbank company, claiming the entertainment giant fired him in alleged retaliation for reporting sexual harassment in the workplace. Robert Klein, 41, filed an unlawful retaliation suit Monday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, seeking damages in excess of $75,000 for lost wages and benefits. He alleges, in court documents, that he was a casualty in Disney's "attempt to cover up sexual harassment at the company. " "Disney's retaliatory actions have blackballed Klein in the archiving community ... and have destroyed his otherwise impeccable career and reputation," the suit alleges.

A smile -- one that is both proud and mischievous -- crosses her lips as she proudly proclaims herself a "Mormon Jew." Behind Hynda Rudd's desk in her Glendale home hangs a picture of a frontier rabbi she calls her "patron saint." Although he died more than two decades before she was born, this man's passion for politics and religion not only piqued her interest but also led her on a treasure hunt for documents to learn more about him.

Re "Still kicking Nixon around," editorial, Dec. 6 As an archivist, I once faced fire from Richard Nixon's lawyers, and I fired right back. Yet even I am troubled by sneers at the Nixon foundation. Starting with the first one in 1941, all presidential libraries, not just Nixon's, have had federal and private-sector components. Government archivists work with presidents and their families to open records. Archivists also work on exhibits funded in part by presidential foundations.

The letters lay scattered across the Broad Avenue overpass amid abandoned orange prison shirts and Bibles. Inmates had carried the neat packets of envelopes out of the Orleans Parish Jail as they fled the floodwaters, but on the last leg of their evacuation -- a 40-foot scramble down a makeshift scaffolding to waiting buses -- they were told to leave everything behind.

President Clinton has nominated John W. Carlin, former governor of Kansas and a close political ally, to be archivist of the United States. Carlin has many fine personal qualities and friendships, including that of Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.), but his nomination violates both the spirit and the intention of the legislation establishing the Office of Archivist of the United States. The appointment should be made without regard to political affiliation. Carlin lacks the high professional qualifications for this appointment.

The largest Swiss bank claimed that its chief archivist was unaware of an internal ban on the destruction of documents that might shed light on the handling of assets of Holocaust victims. Union Bank of Switzerland said archivist Erwin Haggenmueller knew of a government ban on destruction of historical documents possibly related to the Holocaust but regarded none of the material he threw out as coming under that ban.

Despite Leonard Mosley's contentions (Book Review, Jan. 12), the Disney Studio has never "sanitized" any previous books about Walt Disney. Mosley refused to let us even read his manuscript to correct the spellings, dates and other facts, and, as a result, I compiled four pages of corrections just from a quick first reading. It is a shame to have the results of such shoddy research in a book, because many people believe everything they read in print. And, from all his dealings with me, Mosley should know by now that my name is not David E. Smith.

After Walt Disney died in 1966, his grieving staff sealed his office suite in Burbank, and even as work proceeded on "The Jungle Book" there was anxiety that the company's past might be brighter than its future. Four years later, those worries deepened as key executives approached retirement, including Walt's older brother, Roy O. Disney. That's why, in 1970, the company handed the key to Walt's still-sealed office to a former UCLA research librarian named Dave Smith, who was sent into the chamber to learn its history.

Until recently, David Ferriero's favorite artifact at the National Archives was the canceled $7.2-million check -- "an actual check!" -- that was used to purchase the territory of Alaska back in 1868. But this month, Ferriero, the archives' new director, saw an old American Indian treaty in a secret vault. It was etched on parchment and festooned with ribbons and, he recalled, "a string of the most beautiful cobalt blue and white beads." "Wampum!" he exclaimed in a recent interview.

A synthesized cellphone melody pulls Jeff Rice from his sleep. De-de da-de-de da-de-de da-de. De-de da-de-de da-de-de da-de. Rice hits the alarm. It's 4:30, still dark. He clicks on his headlamp and dresses in the confines of his tent. The nylon zipper shrieks -- zzzzzzzzzzzpp -- as he opens the flap and steps outside. A few clouds have rolled in. The remaining stars poke through the sky like shards of light. Beyond the cottonwoods, the creek is a steady babble, the crickets nonstop and the bats an occasional tcheee, tcheee, tcheee.

Re "Still kicking Nixon around," editorial, Dec. 6 As an archivist, I once faced fire from Richard Nixon's lawyers, and I fired right back. Yet even I am troubled by sneers at the Nixon foundation. Starting with the first one in 1941, all presidential libraries, not just Nixon's, have had federal and private-sector components. Government archivists work with presidents and their families to open records. Archivists also work on exhibits funded in part by presidential foundations.

An archivist convicted of selling stolen New York artifacts such as an original Currier & Ives lithograph on EBay was sentenced in Albany on Thursday to two to six years in prison. He also paid $129,500 in restitution and handed over his personal collection to the state. Daniel Lorello, the 55-year-old former archives and records management specialist for the state Department of Education, pleaded guilty to second-degree grand larceny in August. Some 1,600 items have been recovered, and the restitution will be used in part to repay people who bought and gave back some of them, said John Milgrim, spokesman for the state attorney general.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- A long-time state archivist was accused Monday of stealing hundreds of historic artifacts and documents from the New York State Library, including two Davy Crockett Almanacs, and selling some on EBay. Daniel Lorello, 54, an archives and records management specialist in the state Education Department since 1979, was arraigned Monday on charges of grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property and scheme to defraud.

Mumbles, Big Boy Caprice, 88 Keyes, Little Boy Beard, Flyface, Flattop, the Brow--some of the most dastardly enemies that Dick Tracy ever faced. Enough to scare any self-respecting crime-stopper out of his two-way wrist radio. But they don't faze Paul Maher. He has 'em all in hand, even the sinister Rhodent and the slippery Spots, in the form of an antique Dick Tracy board game. "This game is based on the old Dick Tracy cartoon show" (from 1961), said Maher, 37, cradling the item gently.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has renewed its financial support of the Assn. of Moving Image Archivists with a $50,000 grant to fund administrative and other costs for the fiscal year that began July 1. Founded in 1991, the Assn. of Moving Image Archivists works to advance moving image archiving, collection, preservation, exhibition and use of moving image materials. The association represents more than 500 archivists in the U.S., Canada and 18 other countries.

Baghdad Staring directly at the camera, Zahra Badri begins: "I have not had one good day in my life." Saddam Hussein's regime imprisoned and killed 23 of the Shiite woman's relatives, including her husband, her son and her pregnant daughter. To save two other sons, she kept them hidden inside her home for more than 20 years.

little rock, ark. - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton cites her experience as a compelling reason voters should make her president, but nearly 2 million pages of documents covering her White House years are locked up in a building here, obscuring a large swath of her record as first lady. Clinton's calendars, appointment logs and memos are stored at her husband's presidential library, in the custody of federal archivists who do not expect them to be released until after the 2008 presidential election.